Re: [Harp-L] Fw: harmonica painting and the Canadian scene

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

John - 

Thanks for bringing this to the list's attention.

The painting, well known in Canada, has always made me vaguely
uncomfortable. The kid just munched on bread and slurped down soup, and
now he's blowing it into his harp.

Interesting that it was painted in the 1890s, illustrating that playing
the harmonica was by that time widespread enough in French speaking
Canada to be captured as a typical child's activity. Of course one of
the earliest-born harmonicas players known to record was a French
Canadian born in 1860 and actively playing by 1870 (Joseph Lalonde).

The article is pretty good. It misses a few important players like
Adelard St-Louis, Tommy Basker, and Wilbrod Boivin (along with slightly
lesser worthies like Moise Filion, Fred Townsend, Wilson Poirier, Mario
Forest, Gilles Garand) but is otherwise a good overview.

Several of the old-time players mentioned in the article may be heard
on old 78 rpm records transcribed to mp3 at the Virtual Gramophone
website:

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/gramophone/index-e.html

Look for names like Henri Lacroix, Louis Blanchette, Mary Bolduc,
Adélard St-Louis, Joseph Lalonde, or do a search for harmonica or for
musique à bouche (though the latter term also refers to singing
instrumental melodies to nonsense syllables).

Winslow

--- John Kerkhoven <solo_danswer@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Perhaps of interest to some:
> 
>
http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001540
> 
> The painting referred to in the opening paragraph can be seen here:
>
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=ExploreCanada&Params=F3
> 
> I have no affiliation with the source, nothing to do with the
> article.
> 
> John
> Montreal
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
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> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
> 


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